Busy times with Co-optimus: I have a shirt to prove it edition.

I know, I know, it may appear to some that I haven't been paying any attention to this site, or writing much of anything at all. Well, I have been paying attention and written things, I just don't have a lot to contribute here at the moment, primarily because of this wonderful place I discovered: Co-optimus.com. Over at Co-optimus, I actually do quite a bit of writing, and even gaming with some good people.

The reason I don't share that writing here? It would instantly become spam. No, I'm serious. Most of the news articles are very brief, quirky, and frequent – thus creating spam for those that don't care or aren't interested in every post. So, in order to maintain this website as the archiving tool I created it for, I will be letting you guys know what I've been up to over at co-optimus with links to each article summarized in one Mixed Bag post per month, and organized according to subject. This way, it's wholly ignorable, or skimmable, and only takes up one spot on all of my feeds, but you still get the low-down.

Also, if you ask real nice (with some money), Co-optimus will put robots on your boobs.



Let's get started, shall we?

Random:

In art news, I covered some interesting ground in Diablo 3, when we discovered some goofy screen shots featuring the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man of Ghostbusters, and a very – er – powerful Unicorn.

I actually did a bit of coverage on the 50 Cent game: Blood on the Sand – and was surprised how fun and interesting they were to write. The first one is a list of the taunts 50 Cent uses in game, and The language is naughty but amusing.

The second, is actually on 50 Cent himself, as he plans on taking the Saints Row video game to film, whether or not he has a role in the film hasn't been announced.

And the final article I posted for Co-optimus was covering some user content on Little Big Planet, in which Someone either crazy, insane, or extra awesome recreated the entire Contra game using Little Big Planets custom levels.

Halo Wars Coverage:

Many...that is to say, millions, of people tried the Halo Wars demo that was released on Xbox live, including many of the Co-opticrew. I thought it'd be neat to ask some of them their individual opinions of the game, and compile it as a cooperative article.

As I just mentioned, Halo Wars appealed to a lot of people, 2 million xbox users world wide. I covered that story, and added a bit about the newest documentary available at the time. Pretty impressive numbers, anyway!

I'll put these two together, since I was excited about them: Ensemble studios, the good people responsible for the very successful Halo Wars game (and so far, we've only seen the demo!) were sentenced to be closed down. The good news? Ensemble has gone separate ways to create two new studios. Welcome Robot Entertainment, and Bonfire Studios.

Valentines Day:

When Valentines day rolls around, many artists take their time making up quirky Valentines day cards – this had me thinking that the singles Needed a day to game together instead of being alone, so I hosted a co-op game night, which was a blast!

Valentines Day fun struck again, after discovering a game called “Remote Masseuse”, which allowed gamers to “play” together, over xbox live, a game that vibrated the opposite players controller. This was really funny, and fun to write!

Previews and Disappointments:

Then moving along, I hit up a preview of a game called “Damnation”, which boasted Gears of War style gameplay, with an old western meets futuristic feel. So far it *looks* decent, but I've heard it's fair share of negative feedback as well.

Back to the theme of the Ghostbusters, I tracked down a newly released trailer that was bound to make fans very happy, since it featured the original actors voicing themselves, movie likeness, and some in game footage.

Stepping a little bit out of my range, I covered an article on a portable version of Rock Band, which actually lacks a co-op option. I found this disappointing enough to write (see: Mini Rant) an article on, so I did.

Features:

I've already featured the interview with Carlos Ferro on here, but I feel it can stand to be repeated. Carlos Ferro, better known as Dominic Santiago in Gears of War answered some fun questions for me on behalf of Co-optimus.com, and it was a lot of fun!

Reviews are always an interesting subject, and Co-optimus does them a little differently. Instead of reviewing an entire game, we play, and review, the Co-op portion of whatever game it is. This month, I covered Armored Core: For Answer's co-op, and you'll just have to click the link to see what I thought of it. Remember, these reviews are for the co-op portion of the game, and doesn't generally reflect single player!

I'll be doing one of these a month, assuming I can keep up with myself, just to remind you guys that I'm here, and writing. Of course, if you don't want to wait 'till the end of the month for these updates, you can always see what I post directly as it happens!